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A TYPICAL PENTECOSTAL PULPIT

An old friend of mine requested
that I listen to a certain minister in his neck of the woods. I did that, and
then offered to him the following observations on the man’s latest sermon. I
expected the loose interpretation of Scripture and the failed articulation
(which I said nothing about in the critique.) But it is the emphasis on ‘signs’
that makes the sermon so representative of Pentecostal preaching.

Correspondence

September 2013

Hi _____, I put off listening to
a sermon from that church you told me about because I suspected that it would
be a negative experience. It was just about what I expected, for I know what to
expect from Pentecostal ministers. So here, I have prepared some comments on
the sermon for you. I may send these notes to the pastor in question, without
mentioning your name, of course. I might polish them up a little more before I
do that, maybe not. Anyway, here are the notes as they stand so far.

(Now I don’t doubt for a moment
that this man is ‘a nice guy.’ What is his pulpit performance like? This is the
question that you need an answer to.)

To summarize very briefly, Mr.
Lava teaches this: We all have defining moments; they set the course for our
lives; we ought to get involved and not hide, for God wants to bless us. Some
defining moments in the lives of Bible characters are rehearsed for us in order
to bring the message home. The main point of the sermon, though, is that God is
okay with granting us a sign to confirm some defining moment in our lives, and
he may do it through this prophet or that.

Not long after the sermon begins,
mention is made of a pastor who prophesied over ‘certain people’ (probably some
members of Mr. Lava’s church.) The instance is mentioned in order to show how
hard it is to interpret a prophecy like that to our lives. Then Mr. Lava has the
nerve to denounce false prophets! Who are the false prophets? The false
prophets are those who ‘prophesy’ over us and then allow us to be in confusion
over it. The true prophet interprets the word of God instead. What is the
difference between God bestowing to Gideon a sign and these modern day
Pentecostal prophets prophesying over us? The sign from God can be readily
interpreted. If God is okay with us asking for a sign, as Mr. Lava says, then
be sure of at least this: he will entrust that sign to someone better equipped
to give it than the man who prophesied confusion over this people at the
Brantford Worship Centre! And how equipped is Mr. Lava? He is not equipped to
teach, much less be a medium to convey signs!

Pretty soon the subject turns to
bodily healing and healing from demonic oppression. “Mighty man of valor!
Mighty woman of valor! That’s your potential!” How will this people interpret exclamations
like these? Because of what Mr. Lava focuses on, the congregation will
interpret them in a materialistic way. The people will hear, in such
exclamations, promises of fame, health, or prosperity. Their eyes will be
turned to earthly things that are ready to perish instead of virtues, graces,
and things above.

This message is calculated to
puff people up, not humble them before God. It will make people proud. ‘I
can’t’ should not be part of our vocabulary, says the pastor. What if we,
unlike Gideon, are pursuing a path (maybe because of some ‘sign’ or ‘prophecy’
from a wacked out pastor) that is not the one we should be on? Would it not be
good to say ‘I can’t’ in that instance? I think it might be a good thing to say
‘I can’t’ go to the Brantford Worship Centre to get taught the Bible,
especially since the pastor there denigrates education in his sermon.

In addition to examples from the
Bible, a defining moment from the pastor’s life is used to teach about defining
moments: when his church came up with, or gave out, 100 backpacks. Is that the
best example the man can give? I hope not. He should be able to come up with
some better example than that, especially considering that he has personally
witnessed a person being raised from the dead! Yes, with that tidbit of
information, we know right where this pastor is at. He’s right on the
Pentecostal track, swallowing deceit and spreading lies. If there are
resurrections going on and apostles in the midst, like he asserts, why all the
effort to produce an experience near the end of this sermon by playing music in
the foreground of the message? The man is interactive with his audience during
the main part of his message (asking them to repeat this and that phrase or
word) because his sermon and preaching have no power. And then near the end he
hopes that music will do the job. The worst of it is that he makes false
promises of great magnitude too, like: “You shall not die.” People die every
day, Mr. Lava, even Pentecostal persons, no matter what defining moment they’ve
had, no matter what sign they think God gave, and no matter what lying prophecy
the last Pentecostal minister belched out of his blasphemous mouth.

Correspondence

Thanks _____, I will listen to that sermon one more time to
make sure of all the points that I made. I usually listen twice to everything I
critique. It is a given that a person who goes to a Pentecostal Assembly to
learn (not to listen critically) cannot be very swift. If he were swift, you
would not find him there trying to learn something because he would know
better.

Correspondence

Yes, these people are ignorant about history and what's
going on in the world. But they know a lot about movies, toys, and the latest
program line-up on television. More importantly, they are ignorant of the most
important doctrines of God: like justification, redemption, and the
substitution of Jesus on the cross. Because Pentecostal ministers are so
ignorant, proud, and misleading, I pull no punches in my criticisms of what
they preach. The resurrection of Christ means little to these people; but the
rumor that someone might have been raised from the dead around town somewhere,
this is everything. The truth seems like nothing to them, while lies take
center stage. I get a little angry about that because it is through diversions,
lies, and deceit that souls are being led down the path toward hell.

Correspondence

Yes, I get what you say. Well, I have listened to that
crummy sermon for a second time, and had to change very little in my critique
before I sent it off to Mr. Lava. May the lava of hot criticism do Mr. Lava
some good! May it burn off some of the dross that he is encrusted with!

(One’s level of piety, whether devotional or practical, depends much on knowledge being either learned or misconceived. In these analyses we...

WHAT'S IN THE ARCHIVE

In the archive you will find extensive, thorough reviews of sermons delivered by pastors in Red Deer. These reviews, or analyses, are given to represent the content of what is being taught in the churches of this city and the manner in which this is done. Currently, there are over two dozen analyses on this site; they have subjected the pastors of 8 churches to the test of Scripture. Jump into the blog and into your Bible to see how true to Scripture your pastor's teachings and methods are. Scroll down to our book lists, make some prayerful choices from there, and go shopping at Amazon.ca or some place like that. The best books to read are not generally sold at your local Christian book store. Solomon's advice to get understanding is terrible advice to ignore.

TOP TEN BOOKS FOR HARD READERS

(2) HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY (J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, 1846)

(3) PENSEES (BLAISE PASCAL, 1669; 1844)

(4) OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE HISTORY (ALFRED EDERSHEIM, 1876-1887; 1890)

(5) EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (ROBERT HALDANE, 1839)

(6) THE REFORMERS AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE REFORMATION (WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, 1862)

(7) DISCUSSIONS, VOL 3 (R. L. DABNEY, 1892, 1897)

(8) STUDIES IN THEOLOGY (B. B. WARFIELD, 1932)

(9) MEMOIRS OF JONATHAN EDWARDS (SERENO E. DWIGHT, ed., c. 1834)

(10) THE CITY OF GOD (AUGUSTINE, 426)

MANY FALSE PROPHETS ARE GONE OUT INTO THE WORLD

1 JOHN 4.1

ABOUT WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING

WE ARE NOT IMPLYING THAT ALL SERMONS REVIEWED HERE ARE THE WORKS OF WOLVES (FALSE TEACHERS) INSTEAD OF SHEEP (TRUE PROFESSORS.) BUT IF 'MANY FALSE PROPHETS' ARE GONE OUT INTO THE WORLD, THEY MUST RESIDE SOMEWHERE, AND IT SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE TO FIND A FEW OF THESE IN RED DEER. THEREFORE OUR WARNING IS JUST, AND THE APOSTLE WOULD APPROVE OUR QUOTING HIM. A WOLF MAY BE DISTINGUISHED FROM A SHEEP BY THE KIND OF GOSPEL HE PREACHES, WHETHER TRUE, OR FALSE. THIS IS THE CHIEF DISTINCTIVE.